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XL5
''Fireball XL5'' is a 1960s British children's science-fiction puppet television series about the missions of ''Fireball XL5'', a vessel of the World Space Patrol that polices the cosmos in the year 2062. Commanded by Colonel Steve Zodiac, ''XL5'' defends Earth from interstellar threats while encountering a wide variety of alien civilisations. Inspired by the Space Race, ''Fireball XL5'' was created by the husband-and-wife team of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and filmed by their production company AP Films (APF) for ITC Entertainment. It was APF's final black-and-white series and the third to be made in what the Andersons dubbed "Supermarionation": a style of production in which the characters were played by electronic marionettes whose mouth movements were synchronised with the voice actors' pre-recorded dialogue. Zodiac was voiced by Paul Maxwell while two of his companions – ''XL5'' co-pilot Robert the Robot and "space doctor" Venus – were voiced by Gerry and Sylvia Ande ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stingray (1964 TV Series)
''Stingray'' is a British children's science fiction television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and produced by AP Films (APF) for ITC Entertainment. Filmed in 1963 using a combination of electronic marionette puppetry and scale model special effects, it was APF's sixth puppet series and the third to be produced under the banner of " Supermarionation". It premiered in October 1964 and ran for 39 half-hour episodes. Set in the 2060s, the series follows the exploits of the World Aquanaut Security Patrol (WASP), an organisation responsible for policing the Earth's oceans. The WASP's flagship is ''Stingray'', a combat submarine crewed by Captain Troy Tempest, navigator Lieutenant "Phones" and Marina, a mute young woman from under the sea. ''Stingray''s adventures bring it into contact with various underwater civilisations, some friendly and others hostile, as well as strange natural phenomena. In preparation for the series, APF acquired new, larger studios that it wo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
TV Century 21
''TV Century 21'', later renamed ''TV21'', ''TV21 and Tornado'', ''TV21 and Joe 90'', and ''TV21'' again, was a weekly British children's comic published by City Magazines during the latter half of the 1960s. Originally produced in partnership with Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's Century 21 Productions, it promoted the company's many science-fiction television series. The comic was published in the style of a newspaper of the future, with the front page usually dedicated to fictional news stories set in the worlds of ''Fireball XL5'', ''Stingray'', '' Thunderbirds'', ''Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons'' and other stories. The front covers were also in colour, with photographs from one or more of the Anderson series or occasionally of the stars of the back-page feature. The brainchild of writer-editor Alan Fennell (who also wrote episodes of the various Anderson TV shows) and presenter Keith Shackleton, ''TV Century 21'' was produced by the staff at the Andersons' Century 21 Publi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gerry Anderson
Gerald Alexander Anderson (; 14 April 1929 – 26 December 2012) was an English television and film producer, director, writer and occasional voice artist. He remains famous for his futuristic television programmes, especially his 1960s productions filmed with " Supermarionation" (marionette puppets containing electric moving parts). Anderson's first television production was the 1957 Roberta Leigh children's series ''The Adventures of Twizzle'' (1957–58). ''Torchy the Battery Boy'' (1960), ''Four Feather Falls'' (1960), ''Supercar'' (1961–62) and ''Fireball XL5'' (1962–63) followed later, both series breaking into the U.S. television market in the early 1960s. In the mid-1960s Anderson produced his most successful series, '' Thunderbirds''. Other television productions of the 1960s include '' Stingray'', ''Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons'' and ''Joe 90''. Anderson also wrote and produced several feature films. Following a shift towards live-action productions in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sylvia Anderson
Sylvia Beatrice Anderson (; 25 March 1927 – 15 March 2016) was an English television and film producer, writer, voice actress and costume designer, best known for her collaborations with Gerry Anderson, her husband between 1960 and 1981. In addition to serving as co-creator and co-writer on their TV series during the 1960s and early 1970s, Anderson's primary contribution was character development and costume design. She regularly directed the fortnightly voice recording sessions, and provided the voices of many female and child characters. She also helped develop the shows and characters, in particular creating the iconic characters of Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward, Lady Penelope and Aloysius Parker, Parker in ''Thunderbirds (TV series), Thunderbirds''. Early life Anderson was born in Camberwell, London, England on 25 March 1927. Her father, Sidney Thomas, was a champion boxer, and her mother, Beatrice (), a dressmaker. After graduating from the London School of Economics wit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
TV Comic
''TV Comic'' was a British comic book magazine published weekly from 9 November 1951 until 29 June 1984. Featuring stories based on television series running at the time of publication, it was the first British comic to be based around TV programmes;"British Comics Reference , British TV-related Comic Strips," DownTheTubes.net. Retrieved 25 Feb. 2021. it spawned a host of imitators. Publication history Originally started by '''', ''TV Comics'' was later sold to , and ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barry Gray
Barry Gray (born John Livesey Eccles; 18 July 1908 – 26 April 1984) was a British musician and composer best known for his collaborations with television and film producer Gerry Anderson. Life and career Born into a musical family in Blackburn, Lancashire, Gray was encouraged to pursue a musical career from an early age. Starting at the age of five – with piano lessons – he studied diligently and became a student at the Manchester Royal College of Music and at Blackburn Cathedral. He studied composition under the Hungarian born émigré composer Matyas Seiber. Gray's first professional job was for B. Feldman & Co. in London, where he gained experience in scoring for theatre and variety orchestras. From there, he joined Radio Normandy as a composer-arranger. After serving for six years with the Royal Air Force during World War II he returned to the music industry to work with such names as Vera Lynn and Hoagy Carmichael. In 1956 Gray joined Gerry Anderson's AP Films and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Supermarionation
Supermarionation (a portmanteau of the words "super", "marionette" and " animation")La Rivière 2009, p. 67. is a style of television and film production employed by British company AP Films (later Century 21 Productions) in its puppet TV series and feature films of the 1960s. These productions were created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and filmed at APF's studios on the Slough Trading Estate. The characters were played by electronic marionettes with a moveable lower lip, which opened and closed in time with pre-recorded dialogue by means of a solenoid in the puppet's head or chest. The productions were mostly science fiction with the puppetry supervised by Christine Glanville, art direction by either Bob Bell or Keith Wilson, and music composed by Barry Gray. They also made extensive use of scale model special effects, directed by Derek Meddings. The term "Supermarionation" was first used during the production of ''Supercar'', whose final 13 episodes were the first ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dennis Spooner
Dennis Spooner (1 December 1932 – 20 September 1986) was an English television writer and script editor, known primarily for his programmes about fictional spies and his work in children's television in the 1960s. He had long-lasting professional working relationships with a number of other British screenwriters and producers, notably Brian Clemens, Terry Nation, Monty Berman and Richard Harris, with whom he developed several programmes. Though he was a contributor to BBC programmes, his work made him one of the most prolific writers of televised output from ITC Entertainment. Early life Dennis was born in Tottenham, Middlesex. Following a brief spell as a professional footballer with Leyton Orient, Dennis completed his National Service with the Royal Air Force where he met Tony Williamson, with whom he formed an amateur writing partnership. During the 1950s Dennis returned to office work, and met and married Pauline. Dennis did not desire a career in business and tried to b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
AP Films
AP Films or APF, later becoming Century 21 Productions, was a British independent film production company of the 1950s until the early 1970s. The company became internationally known for its imaginative children's action-adventure marionette television series – most significantly '' Thunderbirds'' – produced for British ITV network companies Associated-Rediffusion, Granada, ABC and ATV. At its height, the company employed more than 200 staff. Origins Established in 1956 by editor-director Gerry Anderson and cinematographer Arthur Provis, following the liquidation of their employer Polytechnic Films, AP Films was set up. They took with them producer Reg Hill, cinematographer John Read and secretary, then known as Sylvia Thamm. Thamm would later become Anderson's second wife. The company was created with the intention of it becoming a conventional film production house. With no commissions and funds running low, APF were approached with an offer of collaboration ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Supercar (TV Series)
''Supercar'' is a British children's television series produced by Gerry Anderson and Arthur Provis' AP Films (APF) for ATV and ITC Entertainment. Thirty-nine episodes were produced between 1961 and 1962, and it was Anderson's first half-hour series. In the UK it was seen on ITV, in Canada on the CBC, and in the US in syndication (the first Anderson series to be shown overseas) debuting in January 1962. The series uses Supermarionation, based on the complex and difficult Czech style of marionette puppetry. The creation of the series was credited to Gerry Anderson and Reg Hill, but it incorporates elements of ''Beaker's Bureau'', a series proposed to the BBC by Hugh Woodhouse that was never produced. Anderson would later claim that the whole point of having a series based on a vehicle was to minimize having to show the marionettes walking, an action which he felt never looked convincing. The star of the series was ''Supercar'', a multi-environment craft invented by Professor R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Derek Meddings
Derek Meddings (15 January 1931 – 10 September 1995) was a British film and television special effects designer. He was initially noted for his work on the " Supermarionation" TV puppet series produced by Gerry Anderson, and later for the 1970s and 1980s ''James Bond'' and '' Superman'' film series. Biography Early years Derek Meddings was born in St Pancras, London, England. Both Meddings' parents had worked in the British film industry: his father as a carpenter at Denham Studios and his mother as producer Alex Korda's secretary and actress Merle Oberon's stand-in. Meddings went to art school and, in the late 1940s, also found work at Denham Studios, lettering credit titles. It was there that he met effects designer Les Bowie and joined his matte painting department. During the 1950s, Meddings' work with Bowie included the creation of Transylvanian landscapes for Hammer Films and a "string and cardboard" invention that proved useful when Meddings was hired for Gerry An ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Bluthal
John Bluthal (born Isaac Bluthal; 12 August 1929 – 15 November 2018) was a Polish-born Australian actor and comedian, noted for his six-decade career internationally in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. He started his career during the Golden Age of British Television, where he was best known for his comedy work in the UK with Spike Milligan, and for his role as Manny Cohen in the television series ''Never Mind the Quality, Feel the Width''. In later years, he was known to television audiences as the bumbling Frank Pickle in ''The Vicar of Dibley''. At 85 he played Professor Herbert Marcuse in the Coen brothers' film ''Hail, Caesar!'' (2016). Early life Bluthal was born to a Jewish family in Jezierzany, Galicia, Poland (now in Ukraine). Due to anti-Semitism in Poland, his family emigrated to Melbourne, Australia, in 1938, when he was aged nine. He was educated at Princes Hill Central School in Carlton North and University High School in Parkville. He be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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